In 1712 Pope sent them his 'Rape of the Lock' and his ‘Miscellany’ (Carruthers, p. 79); in 1713 the sisters were corresponding with James Moore Smythe, author of the comedy The Rival Modes, he as Alexis, Teresa as Zephalinda, and Martha as Parthenissa; in 1714 Pope wrote to Martha from Bath that if she would come she would be the best mermaid in Christendom; in 1715 he had two fans painted for the sisters.

John Gay called them "two lovely sisters" (Gay to Pope, Welcome from Greece), Pope spoke of their "endless smiles" (Epistle to Jervas, line 61) and of Martha's "resistless charms" (his Epistle to her with Voiture's works, line 59).

However, in 1715, he married Mary Agnes, eldest daughter and coheiress of Sir Henry Joseph Tichborne, 4th Baronet, so Martha with her mother and sister thenceforth had a country residence at Petersham, costing £20 a year, and a town house, at one time in Bolton Street, at another in Welbeck Street (Pope to Caryll, 6 May 1733).

His ‘Birthday Poem’ to her in 1723 strengthened these rumours; his letters, however, vehemently declared them to be false (to Caryll, Christmas Day, 1725, &c.), and he attributed the scandal to Teresa.

Pope, indeed, advised Martha to leave her mother and Teresa altogether when this calumny was abroad, but she refused the advice.

In 1743, after the death of her mother, she paid a memorable visit to the Allens at Prior Park, where Pope was staying.

Ruffhead says she behaved during the visit in an arrogant and unbecoming manner; Warburton and Warton say she ‘took the huff’ because the Allens, as Protestants, refused to let their carriage take her to a Roman Catholic chapel; she says (Mapledurham MSS., Carruthers, p. 378): ‘They talk to one another without putting me at all into the conversation.

Bolingbroke, not liking his errand, crossed his legs, and sat still; but Lord Marchmont, who was younger and less captious, waited on the Lady; who, when he came to her, asked, What, is he not dead yet?

"[3] Maynard Mack, Pope's definitive biographer, noted, "It is impossible to be sure whence Johnson had this story, so obviously intended to discredit Martha," and adds that "It would come quite plausibly .

'"[4] Pope bequeathed her £1000, 60 of his books, his household goods, chattels, and plate, the furniture of his grotto, the urns in his garden, and the residue after all legacies were paid.

She lived at last in Berkeley Row, by Hanover Square, and there Henry Swinburne the traveller, her relative, visited her (Roscoe, i.